LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Walmart is using technology to prepare store associates for the holiday rush before it happens.
In the weeks leading up to Black Friday, Louisville associates are enrolling in Walmart Academy where they’re using virtual reality for the first time.
VR allows workers to gain interactive experience that’s impossible to get using a paper and pencil or by watching a video.
There are 200 Walmart Academy locations across the country, including one at the Crestwood Walmart on Veterans Memorial Parkway.
Walmart associates put a headset over their eyes and look around a crowded store. An instructor asks them questions like “do you see any store associates out of place?” or “how would a department manager make order out of this chaos?”
Department Manager, Brandon Chattin, has completed the class at the academy and says virtual reality helped him “to be able to say ‘well, at the academy, I saw this on the headset and they told me this was wrong, so maybe I should fix it.’”
Walmart Academy Instructor, Danny Davis says virtual reality allows students to make mistakes in the classroom, which can prevent them from happening in the store on the ‘biggest day of the year.’
“It's just very chaotic and very hectic and sometimes it's overwhelming,” Chattin said.
Davis says safety is each store’s number one concern. Associates “need to know crowd management strategies and they need to know safety aspects. The crowds are insane. You just have so many people in such a small area and they want what we have.”
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